rice rat

noun

1. any rat of the genus Oryzomys, having an exceptionally long tail, especially O. palustris, inhabiting rice fields and marshes of the southern U.S., Mexico, and Central America.

Word History and Origins

Origin of rice rat¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

The researchers placed the small-eared pygmy rice rat into a plastic chamber and piped in anesthetic gas until it rolled over, asleep.

From Reuters

It is a rice rat, not a pygmy rice rat.

From New York Times

The 5,000-acre forest is home to around two dozen species of concern for conservationists, including the state-threatened timber rattlesnake and rice rat, and, possibly, the federally endangered Indiana bat.

From Washington Times

"The rice rat extinction is itself a major extinction event, but it is only a component of the wider loss of mammals across the entire Caribbean basin," said Dr Turvey.

From BBC

We had a brief visit from Gulliver, the juvenile dusky rice rat we’ve encountered in multiple locations at this site, in a point within the pasture.

From New York Times